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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

There usually aren’t many times in your life that you can say that was the best “X” I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was fortunate to experience the best worship I’ve ever known on Sunday. Oddly enough, (or should I say “Cynically enough”?) church holidays like Christmas and Easter I’ve usually just “coasted” since it’s “all stuff I’ve heard before”, or geared towards non-believers, etc.

However, I made a conscious decision this Sunday to make an effort to engage in worship and seek God. CHA-CHING! Boy, did He meet me. The worship set prior to the sermon was 5-6 songs (about 20-25 min.), and then there were about 3 more songs afterwards during the offering/closing. There were several times I couldn’t sing because my throat was closed up, and tears rolling down, etc. I even attempted something I’ve never done in my life: lifting my hands up. I’ve never done it as a mix of self-conscousness and cynicism and plain-ol’ “I don’t wanna!”.

As the #2 sound engineer for church, I’m part of the creative ministry team, and we meet on the second Sunday of each month to discuss our roles in the church and worship/praise concepts in general. We are reading through Bob Sorge’s Exploring Worship as a group and discussing the chapters we read. It’s been very challenging and convicting. It is in this book (and our subsequent discussions) that have asserted that God describes in His Word not just suggestions on how to worship, but commands. Including vocally, hands-raised, kneeling, dancing, etc. I had always been of the opinion that it didn’t matter how you worship as long as you find a way that’s good for you. That view has been dismantled, and I’m currently re-constructing it based on what the scripture says…not how I want it to be.

So that’s why I raised my hands in worship on Sunday, and was drawn into a completely new experience of worship and God’s presence. Pretty dang awesome.